Treating students as adults is one of the keys to Paul Evans' teaching technique.
Mr Evans is the Year 7 and 8 teacher at Matahui Rd School and he believes young people should be treated as if they are adults, with authentic conversations between teacher and student.
He also believes in teaching to the moment. "It's about teaching things that are relevant to what's going on in the moment, being flexible and open minded. And it really goes without saying that you need to have a good grounding in the modern curriculum and know all the areas you need to teach."
His students all work on different projects at the same time. Some are writing speeches, some are painting clay shapes for a mural, a few are writing essays and others are working on science fair projects.
Mr Evans gets around to each student and catches up on what they are doing, gives a few tips, offers some explanations or points them in new directions for research, but does not actually tell them what to do.